Wednesday, February 24, 2010

In 2007, 85% of small physician practices and 75% of medium and large physician practices in the United States still use paper medical records. Over the next few years, the wide-spread adoption of Electronic Health Records across all physician practices, regardless of size, will increasingly improve as EHRs become a necessity. Physicians need to be more aggressive about improving both the efficiency and the effectiveness of their practices. It is imperative to use appropriate process improvement techniques and technology tools. Automating a bad process only makes things worse. Technology tools by themselves will not sufficiently improve the care setting. The best approach for a physician practice is to first improve processes, where necessary, and then install a system that would create an Integrated Electronic Practice that addresses both the clinical and business needs of the practice in as seamless a fashion as possible. Most vendors have products to do both. EHR software addresses the clinical side and Practice Management software provides tools for the business needs of billing and collections, scheduling (patient, provider, equipment), and productivity and revenue analysis. The vision for the Integrated Electronic Physician Practice is to have seamless interoperation between all offices of the physician practice and with the systems at the practice's affiliated hospitals, clinics, laboratories, etc. This holistic environment produces an up-to-date, accurate, and complete clinical picture of the patient that enables the best quality care to be provided regardless of where the patient is treated. It also allows the business side of the practice to run in a more effective and profitable manner.